Girl in Love(57)

“God, you must think I’m so pathetic.” She sat up suddenly and scrubbed her hands across her face.

“What the hell are you talking about?” He held her firmly by the shoulders. “You’re the strongest woman I know.”

She huffed out a breath that sounded like disbelief. “Yeah. That’s why you left, right? Because I wasn’t strong enough to hold on. Strong enough to handle what you were dealing with.”

Trace’s train of thought nearly derailed from the abrupt change of topic. “Kylie, I left because I was a mess and I needed help. I wasn’t strong enough to be what you deserved and I would’ve just dragged you down. You never would’ve gotten where you’ve gotten if I’d have let you get tangled up in my problems.”

“You didn’t even give me a choice, Trace. You just…left. Just like my dad did.” Another sob racked her body, and his temples throbbed. “Jesus. She’s right. I do have daddy issues, don’t I?”

“No, she’s not right. Fuck her, Kylie Lou. She’s not even worth your tears, and honestly, neither am I.”

“Why do you do that?” She stood angrily and moved away from him. “Why do you get to decide what you’re worth? You were worth it to me, dammit.” She broke down again and moisture blurred his own vision. Her voice was barely audible, but he still heard her whisper it again. “You were worth it to me.”

Her words broke his heart. It felt like it was literally cracking apart in his chest.

He reached out but she swatted his hand away. “Kylie—”

“Just get out, Trace. Walk away. It’s what you’re good at.”

“No.”

She was glaring when she looked up at him. “Get out. I don’t want you here.”

He shrugged. “Too bad.”

“Perfect.” She shook her head. “I want you to stay and you bail, I want you to leave and you won’t. I wish I’d have known this was the way you worked. I would’ve used reverse psychology on you years ago.”

“Babe, it’d take you a lifetime to figure out how I work.” He winked at her, and the corner of her mouth threatened to give her away. She wanted to smile—he could feel it. “But I have you all figured out.”

“Oh you do? Let’s hear it then.” She crossed her arms and leaned against the counter.

“I hurt you,” he said softly. “More than I even realized. More than you’ll probably ever admit. So now you screw around with punks like Blythe that don’t really mean anything to you. Because they can’t hurt you like I did.”

She glared at him like a bull about to stamp its foot in anger, and he knew he was right. It made him strangely happy to know that whatever Blythe was doing with the Tailgate Twin wasn’t going to break her. His girl was tougher than that.

“But, Kylie, I swear to God, I will never hurt you like that again if I can help it.” He looked up into her eyes and gave into the pull he felt. The one he was constantly fighting. He was tired of fighting it. She was made for him. Everything in his entire life would be wrong without her.

Standing slowly, he walked toward her, expecting her to stop him at every step. But she didn’t.

“Tell me to stop,” he whispered when there was no longer any space between them. “Tell me this isn’t the time or place, or that you don’t want me anymore.”

She reached out and placed her hands on his chest. He didn’t know if she was going to pull him closer or push him away, but he knew her touch would break him and he’d lose the dangerously thin grip he had on his willpower in an instant. He clutched her wrists in his hands and held them between their bodies.

“I can’t,” she told him in the breathy little voice that reminded him of the way she sounded when they made love. She broke the intense stare down they were having by shaking her head. “I can’t do this again.”





“YOU TOLD her? Wow. Didn’t waste any time making your move, did you, Corbin?”

Kylie would’ve stepped back, but she was pressed against the cabinets so there wasn’t really anywhere to go.

“Told me what?” she asked, looking from Steven’s face to Trace’s.

Trace released her wrists and turned toward Steven. Even from the side, Kylie could see the heated anger in his glare.

“Watch yourself, Blythe,” he practically growled.

The sound of the driver lumbering up onto the bus distracted all three of them.

“Okay, folks. Atlanta here we come. Wheels up.” Kylie watched as Tiny closed the doors and cranked the bus.

In a way, she was glad Steven was going to be riding with them. If ever she’d needed a buffer between her and Trace, it was now. She’d lost control with him before. The moment she let him in, both literally and metaphorically speaking, she knew she’d be right back where she started. In over her head.